Employee Stole $1M Worth of Swiss Army Watches: Cops

Receive the latest local updates in your inbox

Gilberto Nieves is accused of stealing more than $1 million in watches from Victorinox/Swiss Army in Monroe.

Updated at 4:13 PM EDT on Thursday, Sep 20, 2012

An employee of the company that makes Swiss Army knives and watches has been arrested, accused of stealing more than $1 million worth of watches.

Police made the arrest on Thursday, after investigating for almost a year.

Officials from Victorinox, Swiss Army in Monroe contacted police in October 2011 when they were conducting inventory of the products at the warehouse located at 7 Victoria Drive and discovered that hundreds of wristwatches were missing.

In January 2011, no discrepancies were found, but random pieces disappeared over the next couple months, according to police.

In September, another full inventory was done, revealing a “large scale” loss of wristwatches.

At this point, the value of the missing watches had ballooned to a market value of $1,076,000.

As police investigated, they determined that an employee had taken the watches from the Victorinox property and sent them to multiple locations in and out of state.

The trail led Monroe police to San Marcos, Texas, where they served a search warrant and recovered thousands of dollars worth of stolen watches.

Information gained in Texas led to more search warrants and recoveries here in Connecticut, police said, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was brought into the investigation until officials determined that this would stay in Connecticut courts.